Magic Lamps

When Michal Antonio can drastically improve his first touch at 30, surely Werner can too

It was an absolute beauty. to control the ball and open the body up to get that shot through 4 players. He has always been a good goal scorer but today was probably his best day so far.

What a nice Hattrick

Little Paddy Bamford is finally coming good. He was always a talented striker, really happy for him he can perform in the PL now. Still no regrets about selling him. He is 27 now and took ages to become consistent.

The problem is, if you play with a no 10 your offense is screwed if the no 10 does not perform. You can’t afford your playmaker wandering out of the game. On the rare occasion teams managed to mark Lamps completely out of the game like Liverpool did in the 2005 and 2007 cL semis, we looked really ordinary. The no 10 needs to be backed and the players work for him to get his passes into the danger area. This means if we now fire lamps as manager we need to make sure that his successor has a similar vision otherwise we will never get maximum out of our biggest signing

That might be correct but the game today is not really anything to go by. Still even without vvd Liverpool still have excellent defensive players. The best fullbacks in the league and matic and Gomez are more than decent cbs as well. Surely better than all our cbs but one. Yet the allowed 3 100% chances you would expect a pro team to score whilst not creating shit at all themselves and needed tagkificonto score the most needless of of all time for them alos Klipps Liverpool was just as poor in his first 2 years as we are now. He needed to completely remould Liverpool before they came good. The Klopp comparison is not really helpful at all

still enough to shred Real Madrid

damn maguire and pogba not starting seriously strengthens them. Both take eternities on the ball and have been dispossessed by pressing even from poor teams like Crystal Palace or Westham. On the other hand they dont really get the ball up to Fernandes and their pacehwores up front without Pogba.Mctominay/Matic/fred are hopelessly average passers and not exactly press resistant either. Lets hope Matic has an extreme off day like he always used to for us in big games.

I guess a Rice-Zakaria double pivot would give us immense protection and still be somewhat balance. Rice is a crisp passer who usually distributes the ball right after he wins it and Zakaria is basically a tall Kante who can carry the ballforward, roam around and destroy opposition counter attacks.

It is maybe lampard's greatest strength to identify and persuade players to sign. This is why even if he is an average coach, he can be an asset to the club in a management capacity. All other coaches have had quite a few terrible targets, esp Mourinho and Conte with their obsession of physical workhorses. for Lampard signings you definitely see what how talented they are. Chilwell indeed always was known for his offensive prowess buti really was surprised by how perceptive and proactive he is defensively. Also a lot stronger and better in the air than he looks. If Rice has the same impact and also outperforms my expectation once he joins next summer which is a given if Lampard stays I guess, I can actually see the 4-2-31 working at some point

tbf not only were we offensively poor, Sevilla defended better than any side we have faced all year. We still managed to make a couple of decent openings and should have scored one of the Werner chances and the zouma header. If we become more clinical and keep the defensive solidity from today we should be fine. I dont like how we always need to focus on the negative. Until now I would not have considered us capable to shut completely down an excellent side like Sevilla without completely parking the bus, playing just one DM. Everyone really put in a shift defensively, esp RJ marshalled Ocampos very well, whilst Chilwell covered upmost of Zouma's fuck ups. Maybe it is just me but I can see improvement even if it is just baby steps.

I wrote a bit on him in the transfer thread a few months ago. Still stand by that mostly. 80m would be a Substantial but absolutely worthwhile investment. He will only appreciate in value with the crazy talent of his. Mind his goalscoring record is without being on penalty duty or cf tap ins. His actions on the ball are absolute quality. IMO he is very similar to Kaka in playing style with a bit of Zidane but not that similar to Lampard and Ballack who were both a bit more robust and more vertical in their movement and space usage in the sense that they could tact the tempo of the play in Front of the Defence and spray long balls or build up play, roam up and down in search for goalscoring positions and threaten goal even from 30yards+. Havertz moves more around and inside the penalty box, from flank to flank and in the channels. He knows he is most effective when he comes at least close to 20 yards to the opposition goal even if his pace is an added bonus on the break. So he is more of a pure yet versatile offensive player rather than a complete midfielder Lamps/Ballack Style. In that sense he would complete any attack. While, because of his meagre defensive Workrate and lack of tackling and tactical skills he would be wasted in central midfield, With a player like him in our front 3/4 we can optionally completely leave out a traditional striker or traditional wingers if we would like. He would not only give us a future top 10 player in the world but also a ton of tactical options up front. What I noticed is that for one heis not as useful on the wing as i remember in bundesliga in the earlier games and now he is playing deeper than ever for us esp in the last 2 games and also receiving the ball deeper where is is not as useful. Probabl helping out in midfield as our midfield has become a major weakness lately. The players just not complement each other well and are all quite limited.we really could use an old fashioned physical ball playing DM and a classic box to box midfielder for the double pivot these days. Anyway we will know more about how Havertz fits in here in a few weeks as he has only played in a fixed position in system for 5 games now and is still settling in.

Özil publicly supports mass murdering dictators without any regrets

It was ridiculous. The ref gave the softest pen ever and then let Fernandez who twice missed repeat the penalty until he scored . This really is rigged. I really wonder how many refs Penandes is blowing on the side lol

If kepas confidence is non existing it can’t get worse can it? You can’t get negative confidence I guess. We really should not care a out what makes Kepa happy. Özil is a different case. He just is a phlegmatic, toxic character. Kepa seems an alright lad just a shit goalie.

Maybe too much pressure. We rebuild the system for him but he can not really deliver week in week out as of yet. Maybe we have up the 433 too soon

Tbf they had been warming up for 5mins but there was no interruption.

Holy trinity may they stay healthy forever

lol yeah like pulisic

Have to say I was too harsh on him. Really beginning to warm to the guy. Even his interviews are now very diplomatic lol. Elegantly also dodged the trap question if he is more comfortable with Mendy in behind. Real team player.

I hope they can see the funny side of this. ofc lamps says he wants to support Kepa. But it has been pretty clear that he wants Kepas ass the hell out of the squad.

I like how Mendy despite not the best goalie technically has ice running through his veins. So cool. Makes everyone around him so much calmer. Told you what a difference a reliable goalie makes for a whole defence. Sad he can’t make Kante and Jorginho beat the press too kova really came in clutch win a few nice balls.Chilwell was a boss motm for me.

No Kepa no problem

Well organised, disciplined performance from both teams teams. Content with the result. Performance was meh but could have scored ourselves. 4 shots on target to Sevilla’s 2. Mendy and Chilwell still without a goal conceded when on the pitch together

Ridiculous. Both have settled in well